Rescue: 24 hours to change the world
by Peladon
Summary: A possible continuation from Rebirth and Blake


_The B7 characters and universe belong to whoever the law says they do, where it's not me I'm content. For fun not profite._

With thanks to Anniew who gave me the idea.

A possible continuation from Rebirth

**Rescue: 24 hrs to change the world**

The message arrived at 20:00 hrs that they had taken Avon's group and Blake was dead.

By 21:00 hrs she had assumed command of the clean up operation, issued an order that the prisoners were to be held in isolation and insisted that the autopsy on Blake was to wait for her arrival.

At 22:00hrs she was on her way at maximum speed to the vicious backwater known as Gauda Prime

She spent the hour until 23:00 hrs trawling the communications traffic for any indication that Orac had been found, then she reviewed the base layout and Avon's options for its concealment. At 00:00 she decided it had not been so far and that it was unlikley to be found before she arrived, then she set an alert for any further information.

Between 00:00 and 03:00 she scoured the files for the origin of the operation that had achieve such success and by 04:00 those involved had all been transferred to the far side of the known worlds or otherwise disposed of. Other than the woman called Arlen, listed as wounded, she would deal with her when they had had some private discussion.

By 07:00 hrs she had reviewed every piece of information they had about Blake since the war and still could not discover if, or how, it was possible that he had been on Gauda Prime.

At 08:00 she was exploring the possibility that it had not been Blake at all. By 09.00 she had decided that there was no way to be sure either way, it would have to wait until they could examine the body.

It was 10.00 hrs when the first images of the crashed Scorpio were received and decoded, they showed a picture of destruction and it was clear there would be no way of restoring the ship or any of its components. The close scans of the damage to the drive units suggested that some form of plasma explosive had been detonated in them when the ship hit the ground.

At 12.00 hrs her experts confirmed that the damage was indeed deliberate and effective, there would be no reconstruction possible, it seemed that Avon had not risked the loss of the Star Drive, but then she had never thought that he would.

Just after 13.00 hrs they received the first real data on the prisoners, all alive, all silent. In his single cell Avon was sat upright, staring at the wall, a slight frown between his brows and obviously, to someone who knew him, deep in thought. She smiled; no sign that he had just shot one of his few friends but she had not expected that there would be, the frown was no surprise either because by now Avon would be wondering about the identity of the dead man too.

Between 14.00 and 16.00 hrs she slept knowing that she would need to be at her sharpest to deal with Avon now he was backed into a corner, stun blasts or not he would be at his most dangerous. She had no illusions about his abilities or sense of self preservation and there was no way of knowing what inconvenient information he had buried in computers across the known worlds for just such an eventuality. But he was not a man to leave his back unprotected and so it would be there somewhere, great care would be required if she was to get what she wanted from him without risking her own future.

It was 17.00 when she rose, dressed and then reviewed all the latest from Gauda Prime. There was still no sign of Orac and the experts now on the ground in the plantations confirmed the total destruction of Scorpio.

At 18.00 she viewed the first Images of Blake's body, she studied them carefully but the scrutiny did not change her initial assessment. It would take detailed cellular analysis to be sure if this dead Blake was the real one or not.

By 19.00 they picked up the beacon of the Gauda System and the planet was in communications range, it was 19.20 when they got the close proximity alert. With a sudden sinking in her stomach she headed for the command deck pausing only to order guards to be put inside the cells of all of the prisoners.

At 19.30 they saw it on the close range detectors, something huge and fast and heading straight for Gauda Prime. Servalan had seen that signature before and though her mind reeled in disbelief she called the base and demanded confirmation that the prisoner's bracelets had been removed. They had. Yet still the oncoming ship sped on its way to Gauda Prime, the blockade and all the attempts to intercept it ignored.

At 19.45 they got the message that Avon had disappeared from his cell, the last thing they heard before the base fell silent.

For ten minutes the intruder circled the planet, and then at 20.00 communications with the base was restored. All the prisoners were gone, as was the body of Blake.

Servalan ordered the forward viewer opened and, as the chronometer ticked past the hour, watched in bitter silence an Liberator turned sharply and headed away from them. For a moment the ship seemed to pause as if to draw a breath while the world changed, then there was a brilliant pulse of light and she sped away into deep space.


End file.
